Sky's body lay on the floor convulsing intensely as her body's physique changes. Her eyes changed from their normal color to a bright, golden yellow glow as she began grunting in pain. Ace, wo wished to help her, had his own issues to worry about.
Not only did he have to kill the groundhog beasts surrounding him and Sky, he also had to protect the girl, use his powers in a way that won't frighten the girl and make sure to not get severely hurt by the creatures.
'System, help me out here, please.' He pleaded as he dodged a groundhog that tried pouncing on him.
[Ding]
[To save time and help in this fight, training videos with fighting styles will be played out.]
Although Ace thought this was unorthodox, he found it useful and played the first video immediately. In the video, a 3D model of a human beings acted as a reference guide for Ace to follow if he wanted to execute the move well.
[Blood Step]
The 3D model bent its knees and stood still in a running position, which Ace did. Then suddenly, its feet got covered with blood as its sprung forth at an incredible speed. According to the video, Ace cold only execute that skill if he followed those exact moves so he decided to try it out.
With his knees bent, back slouched, arms folded and head hung, he coated his feet with blood all the way to his calves and took one step, only to find himself meters from the groundhogs.
"What the…."
[Blood Step Skill learned.]
[Description: The blood step is a skill used by blood mutant warriors as a way to either escape from enemies or gain momentum in battle. It doesn't take any energy points so it can be used to one's content.]
Ace blood stepped his way back to Sky and tried the move again. With his hands partially transformed, he folded them into a fist and blood stepped close enough to a groundhog as he delivered a powerful punch to its sides. The creature's outer body didn't look damaged, and Ace was a little disappointed, that was until he saw it fall to the ground with blood dripping out from its mouth.
"It hurts it from the inside!!" He said as he quickly drained the blood from the creature, leaving nothing but a dried, large carcass to rot.
+15EXP
[EXP:15/50]
With the excess amount of blood he had, he decided to store it in his blood bank, in case something else happened.
[Error: Excessive consumption of blood will turn you into a blood addict.]
[Solution:….]
Another video played out of the 3D model turning a large puddle of blood into a sword, then a staff, then a hammer, and back into a puddle again.
[Skill: Blood Control.]
Ace decided to test out the skill but he was immediately cut short by a groundhog which swatted at him with its large claws.
-10HP
The creature's claws severely damaged Ace's body, leaving large, gapping wounds. The groundhog ran for Ace and just as its was about to gouge out his eyes with its dangerous claws, it was hindered by two, large, bulging arms covered with the same color of fur as it did.
Ace watched in astonishment as he watched the beast get torn down easily. Its attacker took out its body with ease, tearing every single pound of flesh off its body. "Sky!!" Ace said with great amazement.
The teenage girl's body was a humanoid version of the groundhog. She was three times her size and height, had a lot of muscle on her body and looked extremely strong but dangerous. Surprisingly, her military uniform still her perfectly, without getting a single bit of it ripped apart.
Sky pounded her chest and roared with a loud, ear piercing roar that scarred the other groundhogs around her, but seeing her in that form meant she was challenging their dominance so they each jumped at her all at once.
"SKY!!" Ace forced himself to learn the blood control skill by gathering blood from the beast Sky had just killed. With all the strength he had, he managed to turn the great amount of blood into a large, ruby red sledge hammer with a medieval, foreign build to it. "SKY, HERE!!" He said as he hovered it over to her.
The girl gripped the hammer tightly in her monstrous arms and slammed it hard on each of the beast's heads. Even though she was larger and stronger, she hadn't gotten enough time to go through what was happening. Her hammer swinging was a little sloppy, and this caused her to get injured a lot.
"CROME QRUICK, GRACE…" She shouted with her monstrous teeth blocking her tongue, making her say words weirdly.
Using his blood step skill, Ace dashed to the nearest groundhog with a blood axe and jabbed it on the beasts back leg. He then drew out the axe from the creature and drained as much blood as possible.
Then, with the same blood he drained, she spun it around his body and sent it back at the beast in the form of pointed blood spikes. Each one of them pierced the ground hog, causing it to lose more blood which Ace drained and repeated the same move again until it died.
+15EXP
[30/50:EXP]
Even though Ace had effectively taken out two beasts, it all came at a cost on his body. Every time he used his blood drain skill, it took a toll on his energy and the only way he thought he'd be able to increase his energy was by using a stat point whenever he leveled up.
[ENERGY:20/80]
The teens still had a couple of beasts to fight, but the way they were fighting was letting them down. Right now, Sky's form had taken a toll on her energy, so she too started to turn back to normal and the sledge hammer Ace made became a burden on her that she had to let go of.
There they both stood, Ace and Sky, the supposedly weakest duo in the entire ArkVille Military base. Being surrounded by blood thirsty beasts instilled the fear of God in them and them being weak didn't help either.
"Looks like…this is the end…" Sky said as she tried catching her breath. Ace, who had plenty of blood to spare, used some of it to regain his energy and get back into the fight but he still didn't want to turn into a blood thirsty being. A solution to this was him taking it in bits and pieces and only doing so when he needed to.
[ENERGY:80/80]
"Not if I have anything to do with it."
[Blood step activated.]